Tuesday, January 8, 2013

HOW TO BUILD YOUR MEDICAL PRACTICE THROUGH REFERRALS, BLOGS, AND OTHER POWERFUL STRATEGIES

HOW TO BUILD YOUR MEDICAL PRACTICE THROUGH REFERRALS, BLOGS, AND OTHER POWERFUL STRATEGIES

While some doctors in India, such as dermatologists, dentists, and ophthalmologists, have embraced marketing and advertising tactics as a means of practice promotion, others are hesitant to do the same.

“Marketing is still considered to be a bad word by most physicians in India,” said Aniruddha Malpani, MD, medical director at the Malpani Infertility Clinic in Mumbai. Malpani is a practice management expert who authors articles for mdCurrent-India, and he has a blog for patients and physicians at http://blog.drmalpani.com/.

Other doctors may be open to marketing their practices, especially when starting in a new area or after hiring additional staff, but they may not have the budgets for expensive campaigns. Either way, to maintain a thriving practice, doctors need tobring in new patients. The good news is that this can be accomplished without overt marketing. By providing exceptional patient care, maintaining strong relationships with other physicians, plus developing and updating an informative Web site and blog, you can maintain a healthy flow of new patients.